


Blue Wrapping

by Gleennui



Category: Glee
Genre: Babies, Chrismukkah, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Presents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-03
Updated: 2014-12-03
Packaged: 2018-02-27 23:03:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2709911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gleennui/pseuds/Gleennui
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The December Finn is nine, he asks his mother if he can invite Puck over for Christmas. When he finds out Puck celebrates Hanukkah, he gets him a Hanukkah present instead. Little do they both know, it's the first of many. </p><p>For Fuckurt Advent 2014--Day 2</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blue Wrapping

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks for patchfire, the co-preeminent Lima scholar, for creative consultation.

The December Finn is nine, he asks his mom if they can invite Puck over for Christmas. Puck comes over to Finn’s house almost every weekend, and even some school days when they don’t have homework, but Finn’s mom calls Christmas a “family day” so he’s not sure if Puck will be allowed. Most Christmases, though, Finn’s grandparents just come over and they have ham and green beans and that jello salad with the marshmallows and Finn eats until he can be excused to go play with his presents, so he doesn’t see why Puck can’t do that with him. 

Finn’s mom explains that because Puck’s Jewish, he celebrates something called Hanukkah, instead of Christmas. She says that Hanukkah’s eight days long, and one of those nights will be the same day Finn celebrates Christmas, but if his mom says it’s okay, Puck can have dinner with them when he’s done. 

Finn knows Puck loves ham, and Finn’s mom won’t make Puck eat green beans, so Finn’s not surprised when Puck says he can go. He asks Puck the same day Puck brings in the Browns football his Nana got him for Hanukkah, and Puck tells Finn that he gets presents all eight nights. 

Finn didn’t know that people who didn’t celebrate Christmas still got presents. He figures Santa won’t bring presents to the Jewish kids because they don’t have Christmas trees, so maybe he should get Puck a present, instead. 

His mom takes Finn to the mall that Saturday, and they wrap Puck’s new Super Soaker in blue paper, and when Finn hands it to Puck after they’re both full of ham and Christmas cookies and Finn’s mom’s entire box of Russell Stover’s, Finn doesn’t think he’s ever seen Puck smile so big. 

 

Freshman year of high school, Puck comes over for Christmas, like usual, but Finn doesn’t know if he’s supposed to give Puck a gift. They’re in high school now, and starting JV, and most days Puck spends his free time talking to cheerleaders. Finn talks to them too, but Puck’s probably going to letter in it. Puck comes over less, and definitely not on school nights anymore, but they still hang out on weekends, with or without girls.

Finn’s grandparents aren’t there that year, because Gram and Pop-Pop went to spend Christmas with Finn’s cousins in Pennsylvania and Grandma and Grandpa Hudson are on a cruise. So it’s just Finn and Puck and Finn’s mom. They have ham, but Finn makes his mom make the carrots with the brown sugar that Puck likes, just in case Puck doesn’t think jello’s cool anymore. 

After dinner, Finn’s mom lets them put Bailey’s in mugs of hot cocoa, and they take those and a big tin of cookies to Finn’s room to play video games. 

Puck’s really fun and it feels like junior high--they laugh pretty much the whole time and Puck even wrestles Finn into the cookies when Finn beats him in Madden. Puck doesn’t mention girls once. Not even when his phone rings three times in a row and he has to put it on silent so they can finish their race. 

When Puck suggests they play Rock Band, Finn makes up his mind. He gets out his drum set and then slides a blue-wrapped box out from under his bed. It’s the first year he wrapped it himself and the first year there’s no bow on it, but he nudges it at Puck and sets up his drums. 

Puck doesn’t say anything, so Finn eventually has to look over to see if Puck’s going to laugh at him or not. Puck’s not laughing, but Finn can’t see his face, either, because Puck’s just staring at the box and running his hands over the picture of the guitar. Puck coughs a few times and clears his throat and Finn makes himself busy loading the game and picking their venue. If Puck thinks it’s still cool, they’ll start in Sydney. 

 

Finn stands outside Puck’s locker after Sectionals, running the bib between his fingers. It’s empty in the hall--it’s empty in the entire school--but Finn still feels like someone’s watching him. 

He almost didn’t come today. He’d almost taken the bib he’d special-ordered from a site that sews pictures and words onto baby stuff and thrown it in the trash. It’s not like anyone would have known. He would have stuffed it down into the garbage can in his room and put papers and chewed-up gum on top of it and it would have ended up in some dump before anyone was even back from break. 

There’s no wrapping paper this year. No paper and no box and nothing that looks like a present at all. Just a tiny bib with a dreidel on it that’s half-wrinkled now from Finn holding it in his bare hands. 

Finn spins the lock, and if he has to put his other hand on the locker to steady himself, well, no one has to know that either. He tucks the bib between a stick of Old Spice and a Super Ball and half-hopes that Puck doesn’t see it until...after. Then he turns and sprints back to the car, trying not to let his sneakers squeak in the empty halls. 

 

Finn thinks that the first December you’re someone’s boyfriend, you’re supposed to get them something fancy. Except he can’t afford a car, or a nice watch, and Puck says he’ll have to be buried in his leather jacket, so he’s not sure what he’s supposed to get. Girls like diamonds and shoes with French names but Puck doesn’t like any of that, and Finn’s pretty sure neither of them would know what any of those names meant, anyway. 

Then he remembers the necklace he gave Rachel for their first Christmas-Hanukkah together, and he thinks maybe he could do something like that for Puck. Dudes wear stuff around their necks all the time, and even though Rachel was wrong about a lot, including Puck himself, she might have had the right idea about the first boyfriend-holiday gift. 

Finn almost calls Kurt for help, but realizes he doesn’t want to give Puck a bedazzled necklace any more than Puck wants to get one. Instead, he tries googling it himself, trying “dude necklaces” and “Jewish dude necklaces” before he finds exactly what he wants and sends it to his mom’s house. Finn hasn’t gotten a piece of unopened mail since the day Puck moved in, and he’s not chancing having his first boyfriend-gift spoiled. 

He wraps it up in the very last of the three-pack of blue paper his mom bought when he was nine, and he makes the corners as neat as possible. He thinks about adding a bow again, for the first time since junior high, but he’s not sure that the first December you’re boyfriends with your best friend is the year to do it. 

He waits until after Christmas dinner to give Puck the gift. He doesn’t want Puck to open it at Finn’s house, even though Finn’s mom did suddenly disappear after dinner. But they sit in front of the tree, anyway, and they try feeding each other cookies before realizing that maybe they won’t be the kind of boyfriends who do that. 

He waits until after everything, even. After they’re stretched out long in Puck’s bed, a little sticky from the overheated dorm room and each other, covers kicked to the floor hours before. He has to reach over Puck to grab the box from under the beds, but he can’t exactly complain about getting to touch more of Puck’s bare skin. 

Finn kisses Puck’s neck while Puck opens the box--partly because Finn loves kissing Puck’s neck, but mostly because he suddenly feels like they’re in ninth grade again. He looks up when he gets an “aw, man” from Puck, and a nudge in the ribs. Puck’s grinning and holding out the chain for Finn to put on him. They both make engagement ring jokes, talking over each other and laughing, and when it’s around Puck’s neck, Finn leans down and kisses Puck right next to the Star of David, over Puck’s heart. He’s sure he’s beet red, and there’s too much light coming in from the streetlamp to hide it, but the first boyfriend-holiday is just like that, sometimes. 

 

Finn’s running late. It’s the Wednesday before Christmas, when he stupidly made three of his classes’ final projects due, and students have been in and out of his classroom since dismissal. He finally shoos the last student out the door--an over-achieving brunette who reminds him way too much of Rachel--and checks his overcoat pocket. He’ll probably still get home before Puck, who took on an overload caseload for the holidays, but proposing to your boyfriend over latkes isn’t exactly something to rush through. 

The roads are slick, because it’s Erie in December, and Finn and his Corolla fishtail all over West Main before pulling into the driveway an hour later than usual. 

The house is pitch black, because neither of them had intended on being home after dark, so Finn stumbles into the entryway, his dress shoes covered in snow. He hadn’t bothered with the blue paper this year, because he was sure his hands would have been shaking too much to wrap anything, so he puts the jewelry box on the foyer table before trying to kick off his shoes, one of his gloves in his mouth so he can untie the laces. 

He’s still hopping on one foot and trying not to fall on the flagstones when he hears the sway of the front door and Puck’s easy laughter behind him. Puck’s hair is flecked with snow and his nose is red and he’s looking at Finn like Finn’s the best damn thing he’s ever seen. 

Finn drops down to one knee. Latkes and candles and the table he was going to set with blue and silver are suddenly the last things on his mind. Puck’s got an eyebrow raised at Finn, and he’s blowing on his hands, and Finn can barely reach behind him for the box because he feels like he’s about to fall over, and not from the snow. 

It’s the hardest thing he’s ever done, and the easiest too, opening the box and holding it out for Puck. Puck’s eyes go huge, and then wet, and he pulls at Finn before he even takes the ring out. Finn wants to ask if the ring fits, or if it was weird to have “Noah” in Hebrew engraved inside, but then they’re kissing, and Puck’s nose is cold, and the snow’s curling around the still-open door, and nothing has ever felt better. 

 

Finn folds the bib and lays it carefully in the tissue paper so Puck can see the dreidel and Santa hat as soon as he opens the box. It’s not quite Chrismukkah yet, but the baby’s due any day, so Finn’s mom brought over ham and cookies early and the menorah’s been out and unlit for a week. They even picked out a tree from the Rotary Club and got it up and trimmed in between painting the nursery and having the car seat base installed. They’re still tripping over boxes of tiny clothes and multi-colored toys Finn can’t imagine Stella ever being old enough to play with, but it’s Finn’s new favorite December. 

Finn wraps the box in blue paper with pacifiers all over it and puts it carefully next to the menorah. The whole house smells like ham, from the spices Finn’s mom uses in the glaze, and Finn moves a stuffed elephant to sit down in front of the tree. 

He doesn’t realize he’s fallen asleep until Puck sits down next to him. Puck has paint on his cheek, and Finn sleepily scratches at it with his thumbnail. The present’s still in the dining room, but Puck can open it later. Finn puts his head on Puck’s shoulder and reaches for his hand. This time, Finn’s not running away.


End file.
